Frequently Asked Questions

The staging site feature lets you clone your entire production site on WordPress.com for testing and development. Below, you’ll find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions to help you troubleshoot common issues.

Who can create a staging site?

A staging site can be created by any administrator on your site. The site owner will always be added as the owner of the staging site, even if the staging site was created by another administrator. 

Can I create more than one staging site?

It is currently possible to create only one staging site per production site on a Business or Commerce plan. You can create unlimited copies of your site using our Copy a Site feature.

Can I customize the staging site URL?

The staging site URL is created automatically by prepending staging-[random-four-characters] to the production site name. It’s not possible to edit this address or add a custom domain because a staging site is not intended to be used as a live site. To make a copy of your site intended for public viewing, take the steps in our Copy a Site guide instead.

What happens when I clone a site with WooCommerce enabled?

All WooCommerce data in the database will be cloned to the staging site, which may include customers, products, orders, or any other WooCommerce-related information stored in the database. We will also add the WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE=staging constant to the wp-config.php file, which some plugins may use to differentiate production and staging environments.

Proceed with extra caution when syncing from staging to production, as it may result in permanent data loss if not completed correctly. With staging sites, there is a risk that you may permanently lose this data (such as orders and customer details) when you replace the production site with the staging version.

To avoid losing important data, consider alternatives to syncing the staging site to production, such as:

• If you made small changes to the theme on your staging site, consider manually making the changes again on the production site.
• If you have added new pages, posts, or products to the staging site, consider exporting them from the staging site and importing them to production.

If you need to sync a staging site to production for a WooCommerce store, consider temporarily pausing new orders to prevent data conflicts. Before syncing, carefully check that all orders, products, and customer data match between the staging and production sites. If there are any differences, export the latest data from production and import it into the staging site. Once everything is aligned, double-check the data before proceeding with the sync.

If something goes wrong and data is lost during the sync, you can restore your production site from a backup taken before the sync was performed.